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Shorts (Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock)

Shorts (Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock) (2009)

tomatometer

43

Average Rating: 5.2/10
Reviews Counted: 99
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 56

Shorts has imagination and energy, but most viewers beyond elementary school will likely tire of the kiddie humor and sensory overload.

58

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 19
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 8

Shorts has imagination and energy, but most viewers beyond elementary school will likely tire of the kiddie humor and sensory overload.

audience

36

liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 182,247

My Rating

Movie Info

A young boy living in a cookie-cutter suburb gets hit on the head with a rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes to anyone who holds it in this family-oriented fantasy comedy from Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez. All the houses in Black Falls look exactly the same, and everyone who lives in this suburban Shangri-la works for Black Box Unlimited Worldwide Industries Incorporated. A highly profitable company thanks to their latest invention, Mr. Black's Black Box -- an all-in-one communication

Nov 24, 2009

$20.9M

Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast

All Critics (102) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (57) | DVD (6)

The latest child's-eye adventure from Robert Rodriguez, Shorts doesn't hit the heights of his Spy Kids series. But it provides just enough smart, silly fun for families desperately seeking an easy escape from hazy August humidity.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie is as lumpy and misshapen as a giant booger.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment (1)
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Yes, I realize this is a kids' movie, but that's no excuse for short-circuiting creativity.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

My fourth-grader giggled maniacally. The 9-year-old in me did, too.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Be careful what you wish for, Shorts reminds us; you just might get it. Especially if that wishing was along the lines of a smart and funny kids' flick.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Magic vies with technology in this exuberant adventure comedy, which unfolds achronologically in a series of zany, effects-laden vignettes.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Robert Rodriguez makes two kinds of movies - gritty action movies for adults and goofy CGI adventures for kids. Shorts falls in the latter category, capturing the story-telling feel of a young child.

June 27, 2011 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

It is a wildly self-indulgent fantasy adventure that should have gone straight to Youtube, where all 'Dad-thinks-he's-cool-with-a-camera' home videos belong.

August 9, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

Chaotic, messy, and horribly mind-numbing...

December 12, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
Cinema Crazed

the extras themselves are, for all their brevity, as fun, beguiling and strange as the main feature

December 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comment
Eye for Film

Yes, it's definitely made for the much younger set, but it also has quite a few zany little off guard touches, resulting in genuine laughs for anyone who can appreciate the humor.

December 7, 2009 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | Comment
Window to the Movies

...what poignancy is served injecting heavy messages about parenting... into a movie which glorifies the suburban existence, makes light of bullying, and gratuitously employs property destruction for comic effect?

December 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinemalogue.com | Comment

...it seems like the kind of movie Rodriguez made up as he went along. (Blu-ray Edition)

November 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...a mishmash of slapstick fights, tiny green men, galumphing alligators, nose picking, giant booger monsters, and endless silliness.

November 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Shorts is constantly pinballing back and forth, from one thing to the next, in such a hyperactive fashion that one wishes it would just slow down a bit.

November 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | Comment
Aisle Seat

A fun trifle -- essentially, a homemade 'Little Rascals' update in which youngsters with a 'wishing rock' wreak accidental havoc (and create upright crocodiles, a giant dung beetle, a 'big bad booger' monster and an intellectual telepathic baby).

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | Comment
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

All of these adventures call on Rodriguez's fascination with visual effects, which could be tough on his human cast, but he has the wit to keep them in focus. All up, it's good fun.

October 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comment
Sydney Morning Herald

A kid-friendly caper that's drunk a bit too much CGI-spiked red cordial.

September 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Moviedex | Comment
Moviedex

Exactly the sort of kid-in-a-candy-store experience you'd expect.

September 14, 2009 Full Review Source: SFX Magazine | Comment
SFX Magazine

Good clean fun is what Robert Rodriguez delivers in this energetic and inventive film about wishes and being connected.

September 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

Boy, is this dumb. I mean in the way that something can be so silly and disgusting it's dumb.

September 5, 2009 Full Review | Comment
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Shorts (Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock)

Terrible film

April 2, 2011
DreamExtractor
Brad Wright

Super Reviewer

very different than many kids films and is very good

January 2, 2011
michael e.
Michael Edwards

Super Reviewer

Shorts (Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock) Quotes

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Foreign Titles

  • Das Geheimnis des Regenbogensteins (DE)
  • Shorts (UK)
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